FreeBSD 8 Gears Up for Final Release

A major release of an operating system typically brings significant changes that
require users to learn new skills.

A major release of the open source OS is coming, and backers seek to ease end-user concerns.

But backers of the open source FreeBSD 8 operating system say that's not necessarily
going to be the case with its next major version.

FreeBSD 8 is currently in its beta release cycle with a final release targeted for
August. The new release will be the first major release since FreeBSD 7 in February
2008, with the most recent point update being the 7.2
release in May of this year.

While the jump to 8.0 might seem a big step, FreeBSD contributor and Absolute
FreeBSD author pointed out that most users have little to worry about.

"FreeBSD has a two-tier development process," Lucas told InternetNews.com.
"This two-tear method lets our users be very conservative, using only well-tested and
widely deployed code, while we can further improve the code and add new features."

"The newest version of FreeBSD, including the changes that were made just minutes ago, is called FreeBSD-current," he explained. "Any new features go into FreeBSD-current for community testing and further development. Every so often, we cut a major release from FreeBSD-current. This is a .0 release, such as 8.0."

Lucas added that once 8.0 is released, FreeBSD-current will continue receiving new
features and further development. Once those features are tested and debugged, they might
be back-ported to FreeBSD 8. As a result, the latest FreeBSD 7.2 release is based on an
older version of FreeBSD-current, but includes bugfixes and additional features that have
been tested on the development version of FreeBSD.

Another longstanding focus of FreeBSD is on simplifying the technical task of
migrating to new releases.

Matt Olander, CTO at enterprise hardware systems vendor iXsystems, told
InternetNews.com that his firm will be working to help his customers migrate from
older versions of the OS to the new release when it's out.

But Olander, who also serves on the FreeBSD Project's marketing and public relations
teams, described FreeBSD as "notoriously famous" for its easy migration across versions,
with successful migrations to FreeBSD 7.x from far older editions like 4.x.

That makes it easy to recommend to customers, he added.

"We will install whatever platform the customer chooses, although we're certainly
partial to BSDs and FreeBSD in particular," Olander said. "Usually my first question, if
I'm brought into discussions for an opportunity and the customer is using another
operating system, is 'Have you tried that on FreeBSD?'"

What's new in FreeBSD 8?

FreeBSD is one of the earliest open source operating system projects and is a direct
descendant of the original, open source BSD work performed at the University of
California, Berkeley. According to Lucas, the FreeBSD Project is driven largely by
volunteers with very few actually working as paid developers on the effort.

"While the FreeBSD team has excellent communication skills, many of our people have
lives and careers outside of FreeBSD," Lucas said.

That certainly hasn't stunted the new capabilities baked into FreeBSD 8, however, with
the OS -- often thought of as primarily a server-based operating system -- offering big
improvements that may benefit desktop users, too.

"FreeBSD 8.0 includes many new features and abilities over the 7.x series," Kris
Moore, founder of the PC-BSD project, told InternetNews.com. "On the desktop side
of things, probably the most important feature will be the new USB stack, which greatly
improves support for USB devices, and fixes lots of long-standing bugs. Improvements to
drivers 'and' speed improvements are also in the works."

"So far, we've seen some major improvements from the newer FreeBSD base, such as the
USB fixes, greatly improved Wi-Fi support, and a significant desktop responsiveness
improvement," Moore said, adding that work on PC-BSD version 8, which will based on
FreeBSD 8, has just begun.

Despite the improvements in FreeBSD 8, the project's supporters reaffirmed that the
idea is to keep disruption to a minimum.

"The FreeBSD team works hard to minimize user surprises," Lucas said, adding that the
fact makes his book still relevant, despite having been first published in 2002.
"Absolute FreeBSD's usefulness will decrease over time, as with any tech book, but
I expect it to be useful for a few years yet."